We have been in two desert places in the past two days: the Saguaro National Park and the White Sands national Monument. Both places are hot and dry. But in spite of the dryness and desolation, the deserts were teeming with all kinds of life. The cycle of life goes on unrelenting and linked to one another in one living chain.
It starts millions of miles away with the sun sending forth tremendous amount of energy into space. Aided with the cycles of the seasons, the plants and the trees in the desert catch this energy and grow leaves and bear fruits. All sorts of insects and tiny creatures live on the branches and leaves. Herbivores get their share of the sun’s energy, feasting on the leaves and the fruits. Carnivores in turn eat the herbivores and the insects to get the energy and the fuel they need to live. Destroy one link in this chain and the whole chain is compromised. We see this happening all throughout nature and the environment today.
I saw this happening under the Saguaro tree. The Saguaro soaks in the energy from the sun and captures in its trunks, branches and blooms. Insects and bugs feast on its leaves, eating the pollen and nectar of its flowers. Spiders lay out their webs to catch the flying bugs for their food. Even in the desert their is plenty for spiders eats twice their weight in the bugs they catch. Wasps sting the tarantula and lay their eggs on the immobilized arachnid. The larvae of the wasps when they hatch feed on the remains of the tarantula. The wasps become food for birds and the woodpeckers who bore holes into the Saguaro’s trunk to build their nests and tend their nestlings – if they do not end up being dinner for snakes and rodents which themselves often whet up the appetites of the former. Birds, snakes, rodents are food for the bigger predators like the coyotes.
I see the same cycle and chain in my spiritual life. There are seasons: a time to be born, a time to die, a time to plant, a time to sow, a time to laugh , a time to cry, a time to for desolation, a time for consolation. I get my spiritual energy feeding on the body and blood of Christ, whose meat it is to do the will of the father.
“I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”
John 15:1-8